Peppermint Bubblegum

This week’s Project Run & Play theme of candy had me stumped back when it was first announced.  The only thought I had was something pink with bubble gum as the inspiration.  Maybe Bean’s winter jacket this year?

Then I saw See Kate Sew’s fall pattern line (the Nostalgia Collection) and she had a jacket called the Bubblegum Coat which is shown in pink.  It is a really cute style and is based on the jacket she made during the All Star season.  Since there had already been a bubble gum inspired coat on Project Run & Play I thought I’d go a different direction.

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I decided I’d still try to use this week to make Bean’s winter coat.  Last year her coat was purple so I thought maybe this year I’d do blue.  When I think of blue candy I immediately think of those blue and white spiral peppermint candies.

While I was searching for pictures of the candies, I stumbled upon this blog which showed how to make the most adorable little peppermint candies made out of fabric.  I swear these would be so perfect as a Christmas garland.  At this point ideas started swirling in my head, but I wasn’t sure how they would manifest.

THEN Lexi of Lexi Made submitted her outfits for the first week of Project Run & Play and I fell in love with the little coat she made.  The back of her jacket has a double layer of ruffles and a tiny little bow in the center bottom of the bodice.  Click the link to check out her gorgeous daughters and beautiful photographs as well as the coat.

Wanting to recreate the look of the back of that jacket without copying it completely, I decided to mix up the peppermint candy theme, the fabric candies, and use the Bubblegum Coat as a base.

The Bubblegum Coat is a fully lined knee-ish length coat.  I like Bean’s coats a little shorter since she’s still in the toddler age group and I think short coats are adorable with their little legs.  So I first shortened the pattern by about 4 or 5 inches.  I also wanted a slimmer band around the waist so I cut the width of the band in half.  The bodice and sleeves were left as is at the 3T size.

Bean isn’t that interested in pockets yet so I decided to leave off the cute pockets from the original coat.  Then at the last minute I thought maybe angled welt pockets would be cute AND if they were positioned correctly they could get her used to how pockets work since they’d be easy to access with her little hands.  I can’t believe I have an almost two and a half year old that doesn’t understand how cool pockets are, hehe.

I made a basic welt pocket off the cuff (hehe), but my first welt pocket was made for a pair of Clean Slate Pants (*affiliate link) way back when so I should give credit to Melissa of Blank Slate Patterns (*affiliate link).  The welt edges meet like they should, but in the picture I moved them aside to get a peek at the lining.

Then I started on the back of the skirt portion of the jacket.  I added a lot of width the the back skirt pattern piece and made a second skirt piece the same width, but about half as long to form the double ruffle.  I decided to pleat instead of ruffle for a more polished look.

Since I wanted it to be fully lined and the pleats in the back would make it difficult to get everything to fit nicely with a standard lining, I sewed the lining to the back two skirt pieces before pleating them.  (You can’t tell in the pictures, but if you look under the top skirt piece it has the polka dot lining too.)  I did a few pleats across the width and then did the same to the top layer basting everything in place.  Once the skirt was the correct width to fit to the back bodice, I sewed the back skirt pieces to the front skirt pieces and assembled the outer jacket as written.

The jacket lining was made according to the pattern instructions except I just left off the back skirt portion since that had already been sewn to the outer back skirt pieces.  It looked a little funny with no back, but I knew it’d be fine once everything was attached.  Again, I followed the instructions to sew the lining to the outer coat, but instead of leaving a gap at the bottom edge, I just started and stopped at the edges of the back skirt which had already been finished.

When everything was turned right side out I used the remaining unsewn seam allowance of the lining around the three edges of the back skirt to hand sew the lining down.  In the picture above the green dotted line is where I hand sewed the edges.  I don’t mind a little hand sewing since I can do it while watching tv with my husband at night, hehe.

I made the front buttons out of the same teal-blue stretch bottom-weight, but I used the wrong side since it had a little shine to it.

The fabric peppermint was the perfect final touch for this jacket.  I think it gives this rather formal looking coat a bit of childish flair.  I used the main and lining fabrics and instead of gluing the peppermint together as the tutorial suggested, I sewed the swirl together with the twisted wrapper ends.  I wanted to make sure this little detail would stick around when worn by a toddler.  Or realistically, if she tries to eat it.

The jacket is a little big, but I made it in the 3T size since I want Bean to be able to wear it all winter.  The sleeves have about 4 inches of room to grow tucked in between the lining and outer layer so if her arms grow like a mutant over the next few months, I can unpick the hand stitching and pull out more length.  For now I like the look of the lining showing when I cuff the sleeve ends.

Once again, I’ve managed to make a wardrobe staple as part of a Project Run & Play sew-along.  It’s tough getting things sewn in time to participate – made even more difficult since Bean hasn’t napped once this entire week – but I’m always so happy when I do.  It’s fun to see how everyone else interprets each theme.

As usual, linking up to: